Boehner, Obama and the Triple-Dog Dare

[WilliamPitt]

(Image: Troy Page, t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Mr. Wright, Roger Blackwell, rscottjones, tadfad)

Boehner, Obama and the Triple-Dog Dare
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Tuesday 08 October 2013

(snip)

...and here we are, not just because John Boehner can't control his caucus or because a few lunatics think leveraging the health of the world's economy on a political argument is sensible conservatism, but because the planet suffers the existence of people like Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), who doesn't actually believe the debt ceiling even exists, because la la la la la la la he can't hear you, so there.

Or is there more to it?

I have two theories on how the endgame of all this plays out, and both lead to the same place. First and foremost, if the Republicans in Congress are well and truly as deranged, disorganized and demented as they clearly appear to be, then that's it. We're going to blow the debt limit, shattering the global economy in one fell swoop, leading immediately to fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, rivers and seas boiling, forty years of darkness, earthquakes, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, and mass hysteria.

Or maybe, just maybe, they're full of shit, and they know it, and they don't want you to know it, so they tripled down on their crappy hand during a Sunday talk show loud enough to scare everyone within hearing distance into thinking they just might be crazy enough to do this thing, so give them what they want.

The GOP's shutdown/default talking points pivoted away from defunding the ACA and towards "debt reduction" only scant nanoseconds after that Times story on Friday hit the racks. Ever since, right-wing publications like the National Review have been giving long, luxurious backrubs in print to the idea of folding the so-called "Grand Bargain" - screwing Social Security with a chained CPI, screwing Medicare with means testing, etc. - into the shutdown and debt limit negotiations. John Boehner doing a wild-eyed version of a hostage-taker in the movies who waves a gun and screams, "I'll do it man don't think I won't do it now put the money in the bag," fits cozily into this scenario.

They wanted to defund Obamacare, and they lost, and they know it. Now, thanks to the fact that they are frightening everyone, they want the prize they've been seeking since the days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The rest: http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/19312-william-rivers-pitt-boehner-obama-and-the-triple-dog-dare

Note: that bit about dogs and cats living together and mass hysteria is very clearly from "Ghostbusters." The Truthout article has "mass hysteria" hyperlinked to a Youtube video of that portion of the movie, but DU's hyperlinking process either isn't working or doesn't like YouTube clips, so I wasn't avble to recreate it here.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. So are they really demented enough to shoot the world economy? Obama

sounds like he's hanging tough.

[wandy]

2. The full clip including opening tribute to John Boehner.............